


Brothers

by letussin



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Incest, M/M, Pre-Papyrus/Sans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-22
Updated: 2016-01-22
Packaged: 2018-05-15 13:50:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5787610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letussin/pseuds/letussin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post Pacifist run. Frisk understands why Papyrus doesn't have more friends, and Sans is in denial.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brothers

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little short-fic of almost fontcest. It’s pre-fontcest I guess? A tumblr ficlet I submitted, but decided to move onto here. http://fontcest.tumblr.com/post/134258801401/brothers

Frisk leaned their head on their hands, and stared very hard at the two skeletons currently arguing in the middle of the street. Humans ebbed and flowed around them, barely noticed in their conversation. Occasionally Sans would glance around, searching for them, before Papyrus would say something and Sans would get caught up once more.

Frisk tapped their foot against the ground. They didn’t want to round the corner and join the two of them. When they had first met Papyrus, they couldn’t really believe Papyrus’s statement- well, implication really – that he had no friends.

It wasn’t until they had a chance to get to know them, that they realized why Papyrus didn’t really have someone that one could consider a real friend beyond Undyne.

Sans and Papyrus just got too caught up in their own world. They’d take five steps, and their conversation would start, they’d part, the conversation would sorta pause, and then when they rejoined, it was mostly like the conversation had never stopped. Full of odd, weird things that made sense to no one but themselves. It was fun to listen, but almost impossible to wedge oneself into the conversation. It wasn’t their fault exactly- Frisk knew their personalities. Sans was a very reserved guy, who didn’t really wear his emotions on his sleeve, while Papyrus seemed to wear his heart on his sleeve. It made sense, that Sans would keep himself private, and Papyrus would be far more open, leading to a seemingly incomprehensible dialog.

Except- Frisk could remember waking up at 3 in the morning during a sleepover, and peeking over a spiraling staircase to Sans curled up against Papyrus’s side, silently shaking in some nightmare as Papyrus attempted to soothe his nightmares away. The look on his face… Frisk couldn’t remember the last time someone looked so exhausted- not since their parents, and their parents had abandoned them. Left them.

Papyrus was different. Papyrus joked, he yelled, and fumed. But he stayed. He had his own share of secrets, dug deep under Sans more obvious secrets.

And Frisk began to realize the depth of the canyon between them and the two brothers. A canyon that nobody had dug, it just… existed. Between Sans memories of timelines that even Frisk wasn’t certain existed, and Papyrus’s dedication to his brother- their ability to be not really need anyone but each other- just dug the canyon on its own. Papyrus would do his best to include Frisk in any conversation, but Sans would make some joke that Frisk hadn’t been around for, a reference to some part of their lives that nobody had ever seen, and they’d be off on their own conversation.

It wasn’t intentional, but Frisk felt ignored just the same.

Papyrus was looking around now too, the two brothers knowing Frisk shouldn’t be this late. “Sans! Frisk is quite late!” Papyrus fretted, gloved hands pretty much wringing.

“It’s pretty hard to miss us- they must’ve gotten held up somewhere. I’ll go on ahead.” Sans began a slow, languid stroll towards the school. Frisk stepped out around the corner, plastering on their biggest smile.

“AH! FRISK!” Papyrus waved excitedly, long legs quickly catching up to his brother. Sans changed his gait the second Papyrus caught up, keeping up with his brother easily as Papyrus caught Frisk up in a giant hug. Sans grinned at Frisk at Papyrus’s elbow.

“Now then, where do you want to go Frisk?! We have thought of many cool ideas-“

“Naw, it was all Papyrus.” Sans chuckled softly, voice soft, “You shoulda seen him last night.”

Frisk nodded as they listened to Papyrus rattle off a list of ideas. They all did sound incredibly fun to take a group with, but-

A wide hand settled on their head. “Hey, is that MK?”

Frisk glanced to where Monster Kid and their sister walked out of the building. They smiled automatically, at the sight of their friend. “Hey Papyrus, why don’t we make room for two more in your car?”

“Sans! There aren’t enough seatbelts, and you know it.”

“It’s fine, I’ll just take a shortcut to the aquarium.” Sans winked at Frisk.

Frisk nodded eagerly- at least if MK and their sister was along for the ride, they wouldn’t be so very alone even while being in the company of the two skeletons.

——

Sans tiredly slumped through the door. Inviting MK had instantly cheered up Frisk, but caused another host of problems- mainly teleporting around the underground was a lot easier then teleporting on the surface. Teleporting through an aquarium while attempting not to fall into any of the tanks while chasing an errant little sister…

Papyrus closed the door cheerfully, carrying the three small children in his arms. They were knocked out, snoring peacefully in his arms. Sans watched as Papyrus climbed the stairs, and vanished into his room. He pulled himself onto the lumpy green couch that they had dragged from underground. Undyne attempted to convince them to get a new one, but neither one of them could actually bear to part with the lumpy green monstrosity that was probably destined to follow them everywhere they moved. There were dips in the lumps where they sat every time- nobody else ever really fit in the dips, where it could finally be comfortable.

Sans settled into his spot, and waited for Papyrus to come out of his bedroom where he was tucking in the children.

Nights in their household were pretty well divided between Nights in Snowdin, and Life on Surface. In Snowdin, where the houses were shoved together and overcrowding was a serious problem, even on the outskirts, when ‘night’ came, everyone became quiet. It was a unspoken agreement between the monsters- when it came time for sleep, everyone made the least amount of noise as possible. On the surface, where nobody would hear the noise of the television, Papyrus’s late-night television shows lulled Sans to sleep every night. If Sans was having a particularly hard time falling asleep, then he’d creep down the stairs, and seat himself in his spot in the couch, and let Papyrus’s presence soothe him to sleep among the noise. Papyrus rarely slept, preferring to fill his time with other interests. 

Whenever someone came around that wanted an actual solid eight hours sleep (which didn’t happen naturally in the skeleton household despite Sans best attempts) silence descended on the household, and Sans… didn’t really enjoy it. He shivered slightly, arms tightening around himself.

Magic still crackled and sang around his bones from the bit of fast teleporting he had done, bringing to mind another time and a bright, flashing glint-

A mitten hand fell on his back, not banishing, but easing the dark thoughts. Sans automatically leaned back, hands tucked into his jacket. Papyrus was always a warm, comforting presence. He couldn’t completely banish all of Sans problems, but he at least made them seem a little better.

Sans turned, and buried his face in Papyrus’s side. Papyrus pulled up the blanket that was perpetually draped across the back of the couch, and covered Sans. The house was quiet, so very, very quiet that brought back bad memories of Snowdin. Sans didn’t want to be in Snowdin.

“Hey, Papyrus?”

“Yes Sans?” A gloved hand paused in its old, familiar path of caressing his skull. “Do you need something?”

The words stuck in his throat, and he found himself mumbling, “We didn’t get them to brush their teeth.”

“I have already taken care of that brother! Didn’t you hear the sink running?”

No, he hadn’t. Sans sunk further into the couch, and Papyrus returned his attention to the silenced television. Without really realizing it, they both were falling back into old Snowdin habits. Silence, and conversations only spoken in quiet touches that only they really knew.

Sans just didn’t understand why people couldn’t see how cool Papyrus was, where he was willing to let his brother nap through the night. Why didn’t they realize just how open and ready Papyrus was to help them? Still-

Papyrus mittens covered his eyes, resting there just for a moment. Their unspoken signal to go to sleep soon. Papyrus didn't like Sans napping habit, but had been convinced of its necessity, leading him to try and remember a solid schedule for sleep. They couldn't seem to keep to it, Sans waking up at all sorts of odd hours to talk to his bro for a few minutes before dropping back off. Undyne complained about that when she stayed over.

Papyrus leaned into him, asking for his bedtime story. Sans pushed up a little, plopping into Papyrus’s lap. His fingers started signing out the story they both knew by heart. (Neither one knows where exactly they learned it, but almost everyone in the underground knew some amount of sign language, so they didn’t worry) Papyrus wrapped both arms around him, squeezing him tight and hard.

Sans felt his heart sorta jump, the way it always did when Papyrus gave him a hug, when Papyrus just touched him. It became a little harder to concentrate on the signed story for a few seconds as he struggled to calm down, before he stabilized and continued.

The whole heart-in-his-mouth thing had to be a bro thing, because Papyrus had mentioned he felt the same when Sans touched him. It wasn’t anything to be worried about-

Papyrus laughed, a short burst of loudness before going back into silent mode, limbs enveloping Sans a little more, tossing him out of the story completely. Sans felt something hot creep down his spine as Papyrus hugged him tighter, fingers and mind loosing track of where he was. Papyrus’s fingers, usually clothed and hidden, were finally ungloved, coaxing him back into the story. Really, Sans would rather watch Papyrus’s fingers spell out the story- they were long and bones of beauty.

But he joined his brother none-the-less, the familiar ritual soothing his mind just a little bit as they told each other the story of Fluffy-Bunny. The burning feeling didn’t subside, and didn’t abate as they turned their attention to the television show silently playing on the screen. He didn’t really understand it, it wasn’t something he’d ever felt before except for his bro. Still, he didn’t feel in any great hurry to talk to Toriel about it (She talked about it sometimes, how she had felt it for Asgore, but it couldn’t be that feeling, because you didn’t feel like that for your brother. That was just wrong)

The last thought that Sans had was a question he had never been able to figure out. Why was it that everyone said Papyrus was so very hard to approach? He was the easiest guy- nearly impossible to get rid of as at least one timeline Frisk had told him. Papyrus was the best guy around. So why was he so hard to talk too? It just didn’t make any sense.

Maybe tomorrow, when they went out into town, Sans would try to show off his bro a little more- show what kind of sense of humor Papyrus had. He shouldn’t dominate the conversation with his jokes after all, though Papyrus had his fair share of puns…

Sans fell asleep, still pretty much curled up in Papyrus’s lap as Papyrus continued absently petting his head over and over in the familiar ritual they both adored.


End file.
